Final Preview for v0.15 - And let's talk about the future.

I'll announce a release date soon. I expect to have v0.15 done before the end of the month. If it slips to next month, I will not charge patrons for August.

Here's some other stuff coming in v0.15:

• New story content, including the ending of the story for some story branches. The exact number is something I can't be sure of, but there should be at least two endings in this version. No post-game content will be available yet, but that's coming in v1.0.0 alongside new game plus.

• Dates for Rais and other romance updates. I have two new dates currently written for Rais, so we'll for sure get those. If I have time, I'll write one or two more. Also, all romance partners now have unique generated dialogue for sex; previously only Charlotte had it. I also gave Charlotte additional lines.

• New fetish type "teasing," with a new perk: "Sharp Wit." This new perk adjusts the player's generated dialogue during sex to be more smug/arrogant/mean. There is a switch on the encounter UI to toggle the perk effect. There are also some other new perks and perk adjustments, a new potion, and a few other new advancement options.

• I made several adjustments to encounters in general, particularly in changing the way ratings are calculated. I also added a new "resistance" stat to partners that modifies the pleasure they gain from the player. Pleasure was previously only modified by traits and partner lust, so this is an additional modifier that is more directly tied to the partner themselves. Some of the Brothel Boss Six have extremely high resistance.

• Six new outfits (two are variants of other outfits), of which three are unlockable to free players and the remaining three are Patreon exclusives. The update also comes with a bunch of new CGs.

• Several interface and UI changes and improvements. Notably, the game now has a fullscreen mode. I also adjusted the menu. A lot of interactive visual effects were also changed, removed, or sped up to enhance usability.

• I restored support for Windows 7 & 8 in the executable build of the game.

• I made several balance and progression changes across a ton of systems, but these are boring to describe so they'll be in the changelog at release if you want to see them. Of note, many perk requirements and social stat checks for the early game (prologue and chapter 1) were made easier.

• Dozens of bug and typo fixes, and also a lot of editorial changes, especially to chapter 1 & 2.

So what happened to me? And what's next?

I don't want to get too into my personal life, but basically, late last year I started having some health problems and had to do a bunch of appointments and stuff. Long story short, I wound up having to have a moderately serious operation and between scheduling that and then recovering from it, I was kept really busy throughout the winter and spring. On top of that, I do have a day job, and for a while it was all I could do to avoid getting canned there, so a lot of my time and energy was spent on that, and I let this side of my life languish. I'm sorry about that, truly.

Ultimately, I felt like I was so far behind by summer, I decided to take advantage of it for a while, even after things got back to normal. I felt like I needed some time to relax and slow down and make more time for my own mental health needs on top of what I needed for my physical health. I also changed some things around at my day job and in my personal life so that I could live a less stressful and more healthy life. I'm now working less, and trying to go out more. I make less money, but I am happier and healthier.

I also feel like I've gained perspective. Working on two games at once is too much for me, so I'm re-committing to finishing SS as soon as possible. After v0.15, I plan for the next release to be v1.0.0, it will finish the story, give every romance an even six dates across the board (I plan to eventually expand this to 10 each in the future), and add postgame content and new game plus. I'm also considering a Steam release or something like that too for v1.0.0, so let me know your opinions on that. This isn't a priority, though.

After v1.0.0 of SS, I will officially move on to fulltime development of Hex: Becoming a Succubus--that game is still our future, so don't worry! That doesn't mean SS won't get updates, it will, but I'm only committing to one small update (a patch) and one big update to SS per year. The small one will just be some art, outfits, and maybe a request or some dates, and the large one will be like the themed update centered around an activity or area like you've come to expect. I'll do this until I feel like everything I've promised in the past is in SS. Now if I feel like releasing more than two updates for SS in a given year, I certainly will, but I want to be clear that after v1.0.0, this Patreon will be about Hex, and SS will take a backseat.

Hex will probably wind up having three month long update cycles, but I want to try to be more active in providing small updates and patches more consistently, so I'm hoping between those major updates, I'll have two to four smaller, patron-only updates per cycle; think like SS patches.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. I do regret being gone so long because I do think it makes me a bad content creator, but I also think I was in a state where something in my life had to give, and honestly I've been in that state for a while, and looking back, I think I'm in a better position now to deliver on my promises and obligations to you guys. At least, that's what I think. I hope you guys will stick with me and judge for yourselves! Thanks for being so understanding, it really means a lot.

Plan for the rest of 2024:

About the short-term future, as in the rest of the year, things will ideally go something like this:

• SS v0.15 - we are here

• Hex v0.0.9 (patrons only) - September/October

• SS v1.0.0 - before the end of the year

After this, I will transition to full-time development of Hex. I plan to release small, patron-only updates to Hex as I work on the next big release, which will be v0.1.0, and mark the first non-alpha release of the game.